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Partnership to protect our World Natural and Cultural Heritage

Robben Island Museum (RIM) will kick off 2018 with a partnership with the African World Heritage Fund (AWHF) to host the ‘Sixth Annual Coordination Meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage related Category 2 Institutes and Centres’, also known as the ‘C2Cs’ meeting. This event is an assembly of the UNESCO World Heritage organisations to discuss strategies to conserve and protect World Heritage sites. The mandate of accredited C2Cs is to prolong the work of UNESCO in various fields and regions.

The C2Cs meeting is set to take place from Sunday, 11 to Thursday, 14 February 2018 on Robben Island. The objective of the meeting is to reflect on the work of the UNESCO C2Cs in collaboration with the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies. The World Heritage Convention has two underlying themes; ‘Nature Conservation’ and ‘Preserving Cultural Properties’, both of which are well embedded within the management approach of Robben Island Museum.

‘Capacity Building’ is one of the five strategic objectives of the World Heritage Convention. “Meetings such as the C2Cs allow for an in-depth degree of knowledge exchange on conservation and promotion of heritage sites,” says Mava Dada, CEO at RIM. “By hosting such organisations, we can learn from each other’s strategies and add to our continuously evolving management approach,” he adds. “We would also like to share our management successes and challenges with World Heritage community from various continents”.

Previous C2Cs meetings were held in Bahrain (2010), Italy (2012), Norway (2013), China (2014) and India (2016). “Robben Island has been identified as an ideal location for the 2018 C2Cs meeting as it will set a benchmark to implement an interregional framework and action plan for improved conservation and management of World Heritage sites. The meeting will also discuss strategies toward improved conservation and use of the Robben Island World Heritage Property,” says Mr Vusumuzi Mkhize, Chairperson of the AWHF.

Proceedings start off on Sunday, 11 February 2018 with a guided tour of Robben Island followed by the official opening ceremony on 12 February. The programme then goes on to include panel discussions on experiences of natural and cultural heritage protection, adoption of sustainable development at World Heritage sites, groups work and guided tour of beautiful sites in the Cape.

“We look forward to welcoming all the participating World Heritage parties including Government officials and Ambassadors of countries hosting C2Cs” says Dada. “Robben Island is a popular tourist hub due to its location, wildlife and heritage; it is, therefore, important that we welcome initiatives such as the C2Cs meeting to uphold these attributes of our World Heritage site”